An Exciting Finale Expected In London

The penultimate round of the London Chess Classic produced four more excellent games, and set-up the final round for a thrilling conclusion.

Vladimir Kramnik kept the contest for first place alive by beating Gawain Jones in their encounter. That leaves him just 2 points behind leader Magnus Carlsen before the final round tomorrow (3-1-0 scoring).

Judit Polgar scored her first win of the tournament with the black pieces against Luke McShane. At last some reward for the efforts of the #1 rated women's player!

There have been many candidates for game of the tournament so far, but Vishy Anand's clash with Hikaru Nakamura must be a contender. Both sides missed winning opportunities in a complicated game. "Basically, I screwed up!" said Anand in the press conference, sparing Nakamura from losing on his 25th birthday!

Finally, Mickey Adams had a good position against an out-of-sorts Lev Aronian, but a draw was the end result.

Vladimir Kramnik could still beat Magnus Carlsen for first place

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Luke McShane succumbed to Judit Polgar

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Vishy Anand and Hikaru Nakamura provided great excitement in their game

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Lev Aronian and Mickey Adams drew their game

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The standings after 8 rounds (3-1-0 scoring)

Name

Fed

Elo

Gms

Pts

Carlsen, Magnus

NOR

2848

7

17

Kramnik, Vladimir

RUS

2795

7

15

Adams, Michael

ENG

2710

7

12

Nakamura, Hikaru

USA

2760

7

10

Anand, Viswanathan

IND

2775

7

8

Aronian, Levon

ARM

2815

7

7

Polgar, Judit

HUN

2705

7

5

McShane, Luke

ENG

2713

7

5

Jones, Gawain C B

ENG

2644

8

3

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The final round of the London Chess Classic starts 2 hours earlier than usual, at 12:00 GMT. The time control is 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour for 20 moves, then 30 minutes to finish. The 'Bilbao' style 3-1-0 scoring system is in operation.

In the event of tied scores at the end of the competition, tie breaks are:

1) # of wins2) # of wins with black 3) head-to-head result

If these mathematical tiebreakers are not enough, then there will be rapid tie-break games and if needed, a final sudden death game.